This might be a stupid question. I have been using a Kanotix server for a while now and from infobash (Linux 2.6.14-kanotix-9). It has no keyboard or monitor connected to it. I normally connect to it with FreeNX and Samba (normally just use it for data storage for the house).

However, keep in mind that the machine will reboot after kernel upgrade, which is step one.

And kernel upgrade is required before you proceed.

If you have never upgraded the machine it will be problematic however, the upgrade is very difficult, and sometimes results in a connection loss, which if you are running it remotely of course would end the process since you couldn't access it to run it or restart it. Do the install -f and dist-upgrade options many many many more times than you think is necessary since that appears to be where most full upgrades fail, not completing the du even though it appears to be done.

This seems to have improved lately however, and I'm getting more reports about clean upgrades of standard 2005-4 systems.

But in the future, do not wait to upgrade, it's a bad practice with sid in my opinion, especially with a highly customized install.

also please read this kano announcement re kanotix and keep in mind that the script continues to support only the sid option. Read kanotix news section of the forum for more information about that.